Waste is music to him

Fighting against all odds, he has made his presence felt in the world of music. Sanjay Mandal, 31, who has a humble background, has developed a unique style to make music out of waste and discarded material. Divya Sethi reports.

Fighting against all odds, he has made his presence felt in the world of music. Sanjay Mandal, 31, who has a humble background, has developed a unique style to make music out of waste and discarded material.

'Sanjay Mandal and Group' is a bunch of kids and youngsters, making music out of waste and discarded stuff. Broken metal pipes, used mineral water bottles, tin cans, water dispensing bottles, metal pencil boxes and soft drink bottle caps are the useful material for Sanjay as these are main components of his instruments.

There are 10 persons in his team, all from weaker section of the society. But, they have passion for music. "I belong to a poor family. So it was easy for me to talk to them and train them. Now, I am happy that we have got our share of fame and managed to carve our space in this world," Sanjay said.

Sanjay, who is in the city for a live performance at Epicentre in Apparel House on September 23, will organise a workshop for children on 'creating sound out of waste products'. "My aim in life is to open a school where I could train children in this art. In the meantime, I am satisfying myself by conducting such workshops," he said.

The group was one of the contestants of 'India got talent - Khoj 2', a reality show on Colors TV channel. Sanjay and his team were among nine finalists. The group left the audience mesmerised with its performance at the programme.

"I was interested in music since childhood. But, it was not possible for me to buy costly musical instruments. So I started creating sound with waste material and that's how I started. Nearly nine years back, I started creating instruments with waste material which could be used while giving public performance," Sanjay said.